Ali Fredrick Farokhmanesh (, born April 16, 1988) is an American former professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player and current head coach of the Colorado State Rams men's basketball team.

Early life

Farokhmanesh was born in

Ogden, Utah Ogden ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Weber County, Utah, Weber County, Utah, United States, approximately east of the Great Salt Lake and north of Salt Lake City. The population was 87,321 in 2020, according to the United States Census ...

to Mashallah Farokhmanesh and Cindy Frederick, then

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

coaches for the Weber State Wildcats. He spent much of his early life in

Pullman, Washington Pullman is the most populous city in Whitman County, located in southeastern Washington within the Palouse region of the Pacific Northwest. The population was 32,901 at the 2020 census, and estimated to be 32,508 in 2022. Originally founded as ...

, where his parents coached the Washington State Cougars women's volleyball team. As a child, he played both basketball and volleyball, but lost interest in volleyball, considering it to be too much of a feminine sport. In 2004, he moved to Iowa and attended West High School in

Iowa City Iowa City is the largest city in Johnson County, Iowa, United States, and its county seat. At the time of the 2020 census the population was 74,828, making it the state's fifth-most populous city. The Iowa City metropolitan area, which enc ...

after his parents took a job coaching the Iowa Hawkeyes.

College career

Farokhmanesh initially received no scholarship offers. Wishing to eventually play at the Division I level, he enrolled at Indian Hills Community College in 2006, but left after one season in the hopes of obtaining a walk-on position at

Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...

. Iowa was uninterested. He considered quitting basketball after being rejected, but eventually decided to transfer to Kirkwood Community College, where he intensified his training routine significantly. While at Kirkwood, he led the team in scoring and assists, and caught the eye of Division I coaches after a 35-point performance against his former club Indian Hills. Farokhmanesh subsequently received 15 scholarship offers, ultimately choosing to join the Northern Iowa Panthers. He helped the Panthers clinch a spot in the

2009 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament The 2009 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament involved 65 teams playing in a single-elimination tournament that determined the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I men's basketball national champion for the 2008– ...

by beating Illinois State to win the

Missouri Valley Conference The Missouri Valley Conference (also called MVC or simply "The Valley") is the fourth-oldest collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. The conference's members are primarily located in the Midwestern Unite ...

. The Panthers lost to Purdue in the first round. Farokhmanesh gained nationwide fame in the 2010 tournament, when he hit a crucial three-point shot to help UNI upset top-overall seed

Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...

in the second round. Farokhmanesh played a total of 69 college games in two years and started all of them. His heroics in 2010, which came two days after hitting the game-winning three-point shot against

UNLV The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is a public land-grant research university in Paradise, Nevada, United States. The campus is about east of the Las Vegas Strip. It was formerly part of the University of Nevada from 1957 to 1969. ...

in the first round, led to an appearance on the cover of ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellen ...

''.

Pro career

After going undrafted in the 2010 NBA draft, Farokhmanesh signed a deal to play for SAM Massagno Basket, an LNB Division A team based in Massagno, Switzerland. In 2011, Farokhmanesh signed with the Austrian team WBC Raiffeisen Wels. His contract was renewed in June 2012. Farokhmanesh averaged 13.7 points per game in Austria. On August 14, 2013, Farokhmanesh signed with SPM Shoeters Den Bosch in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. In April, Farokhmanesh won the DBL Sixth Man of the Year award.

Coaching career

In 2014, Farokhmanesh stopped playing professionally, becoming a graduate assistant at

Nebraska Nebraska ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Ka ...

. In 2016, head coach Tim Miles promoted him to director of player relations and development. On April 28, 2017, Farokhmanesh joined the Drake men's basketball program as an assistant coach for Niko Medved. On March 26, 2018, he followed Medved to become his assistant at

Colorado State University Colorado State University (Colorado State or CSU) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Fort Collins, Colorado, United States. It is the flagship university of the Colorado State University Syst ...

. On March 26, 2025, Colorado State named Farokhmanesh head coach, following Medved's departure to

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

. He became the 21st head coach in school history.

Head coaching record

Honors

SPM Shoeters Den Bosch * DBL Sixth Man of the Year (1):

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

* Dutch Supercup (1):

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

Personal life

Farokhmanesh is of European and Iranian descent. His father, Mashallah, was born in Borujerd and was a member of the Iranian men's national

team, before immigrating to the United States in 1977, where he played for professional teams and eventually became a coach. Mashallah married Ali's mother, Cindy Fredrick, who became the head coach for the women's volleyball team at the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (U of I, UIowa, or Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized int ...

in 2004. Before moving to Iowa, Fredrick was the head coach of the

Washington State University Washington State University (WSU, or colloquially Wazzu) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Pullman, Washington, United States. Founded in 1890, WSU is also one of the oldest Land-grant uni ...

's women's volleyball team for 15 years, where she had a record of 278 wins and 192 losses. Cindy and her husband briefly coached at Luther College. As of 2014, Cindy and Mashallah coached the

women's volleyball team as head coach and assistant coach, respectively.Cindy Fredrick

UNLVRebels.com, accessed March 20, 2014. Farokhmanesh is married to the former Iowa Hawkeyes volleyball player Mallory Husz. They have three sons and a daughter. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, which caused the cancellation of the 2020 NCAA tournament and all NCAA-sponsored spring sports and also led to most U.S. universities going to online-only instruction, the Farokhmanesh family re-created his famous NCAA tournament shot in an empty Moby Arena on the 10th anniversary of the UNI–Kansas game. The shot was captured for a web video that Colorado State posted on its official athletics Twitter account.

Statistics

Regular season , - , style="text-align:left;", 2010–11 , style="text-align:left;", SAM Massagno Basket , align=center , LNBA , 30 , , 33.9 , , .543 , , .480 , , .865 , , 2.2 , , 3.1 , , 2.3 , , 0.0 , , 19.5 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2011–12 , style="text-align:left;", WBC Raiffeisen Wels , align=center , ÖBL , 36 , , 29.3 , , .497 , , .497 , , .761 , , 1.9 , , 3.4 , , 0.8 , , 0.0 , , 13.6 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2012–13 , style="text-align:left;", WBC Raiffeisen Wels , align=center , ÖBL , 32 , , 34.7 , , .505 , , .415 , , .828 , , 3.5 , , 3.9 , , 1.3 , , 0.0 , , 13.7 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2013–14 , style="text-align:left;", SPM Shoeters Den Bosch , align=center , DBL , 35 , , 26.0 , , .506 , , .376 , , .818 , , 1.6 , , 2.0 , , 1.0 , , 0.0 , , 9.8 , -

References

Notes

External links

Austrian League profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Farokhmanesh, Ali 1988 births Living people American expatriate basketball people in Austria American expatriate basketball people in Switzerland American expatriate basketball people in the Netherlands American men's basketball players American people of Iranian descent Sportspeople of Iranian descent Basketball players from Iowa Basketball players from Washington (state) Colorado State Rams men's basketball coaches Heroes Den Bosch players Drake Bulldogs men's basketball coaches Dutch Basketball League players Indian Hills Warriors basketball players Kirkwood Community College alumni Northern Iowa Panthers men's basketball players Sportspeople from Pullman, Washington Sportspeople from Whitman County, Washington Point guards SAM Basket players Basketball players from Iowa City, Iowa Iowa City West High School alumni People from Ogden, Utah Sportspeople from Ogden, Utah